Flipped our coin and we decided to fish Silver Lake on what was supposed to be a cloudy day. Met Pete at the Lake at 7:00 AM, chose a spot on the beach and had our lines in the water by 7:20. Air temp at the outset was 31 degrees, with fog on the lake... water temp has risen in the past couple of weeks, to 49 degrees. Began fishing with fl. orange Power Eggs on one rig, nightcrawler on the other. Couple of fishermen on the pier, saw one of them land a nice Rainbow about 8:00. Pete had a bite a bit after 8:00, then nothing... sun was rising higher, and was apparent this was going to be a brilliantly sunny day... fog burned off quickly and temp began to rise sharply. About 8:45 my line went taunt, so I picked up my rod and when the rod doubled over I set the hook... FISH ON!... big fish... line peeling off the reel as the fish headed for the south end of the lake. Kept my rod tip high, tightened the drag a bit and finally turned the fish... big splash out about fifty feet, then another run... had to maneuver around my other rod, finally brought the fish in and held the head up while Pete skillfully slid the net under it's body and scooped it up. Amazed to be staring at a fish that I would swear I've seen on many rivers while fishing for summer run steelhead! Rainbow was beautifully colored, measured 22 1/2 inches and went 4.4# on my digital scale, bled and without gills. As it turned out, was the only bite I had all day!
The sunshine brought out lots and lots of people... families with lots of "little ones" playing and splashing in the water. What a glorious Spring (I have to remind myself we still have two months of Winter ahead!) day... saw perhaps fifteen to twenty other fishermen (and women) come and go while we were at the lake, saw no other fish caught. Did spy a large crawfish working it's way into the shallows in front of us... not the native Signal Crawfish, this a non-native, perhaps Red Swamp... supposed to kill them and remove them (WA regs, p. 131), but I don't think that is lawful until the season opens in May!!? Anyway, Pete and I left the lake a little after 1:00... fishing was really off (think the fish headed for deep water once the sun got high)... but with the fish I caught and the gorgeous day... couldn't go lower than a "three". Thankful for a great friend and fishing partner like Pete to spend my days with. PTL!

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